‘Hot Girls Wanted’ Shames And Further Stigmatizes The Porn Workers It Depicts

THE ADULT FILM MINUTE: Once per month, except for occasionally when it’s more frequent than that, Dr. Chauntelle Tibbals will be telling us a little bit about what’s going on in adult entertainment and why it should matter to you.

Hot Girls Wanted debuted on Netflix last Friday (5/29). According to the blurb on the screen, this is what it’s about:

This 2015 Sundance Film Festival breakout documentary from producer Rashida Jones spotlights the “amateur” porn industry and the women it exploits.

“…and the women it exploits.”

Hot Girls Wanted follows, to varying degrees, a handful of young women as they navigate the South Florida “pro-am” (professionally produced, lower budget content shot with new or “amateur” performers) porn scene. Each of whom got into the adult industry by responding to Craigslist ads.

There’s Tressa, who’s 19 and from New Braunfels, TX, with one month working pro-am, and Rachel, who’s 18 and from Oswego, IL, with a week and a half in. There’s also Jade, who’s 25 and from Tampa, FL, with two years in and out of the business (Is she still an “amateur”?), along with a handful of others. The ladies live together in a model house owned by their agent, Riley, who’s 23. They pay Riley rent, as well as a 10% cut from the work they book via his agency, Hussie Models.

And we all watch as a version of their truths unfolds…

Hot Girls Wanted attempts to explain one extremely mysterious and complex corner of an extremely mysterious and complex industry – one that everyone loves to marginalize, including the filmmakers. The film showcases the negative, sensationalizes the unfamiliar, and sidelines the positive. It brandishes unsubstantiated and currently unknowable factoids about web traffic (more visits to porn sites than Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter combined?), the overall net worth of various production companies (the top three pro-am sites are worth an estimated $50 million?), and more (some dubious figures about scene rates). It value-judges sexual expression inconsistent with the “correct” and “acceptable” versions it espouses. On just about every level, Hot Girls Wanted is over-generalized, anti-sex work, anti-porn propaganda (and I’m not the first one to have said as much).

Despite this general air of sensational bullsh*t, Hot Girls Wanted did have some poignant moments.

The ladies’ reactions to the Belle Knox “Duke Porn Star” juggernaut and their discussions of sex ed. When Rachel scoffs at the idea of working a low wage job in her hometown and when Tressa breaks down while talking with her mom and boyfriend. When Jade describes how her perspective has evolved as she’s matured and when Karly (19) talks about sex IRL as compared to how porn sex makes her feel. There were moments in the film, opportunities wherein, if they’d actually wanted to, the filmmakers could’ve done some good.

As a sociologist who knows a bit about this stuff, here are some useful things I think Hot Girls Wanted could’ve done, but didn’t.

1. Looked at sex worker shaming

Sex work is a thing many people choose to do. Sex work is also a thing that many people choose to do only to subsequently realize that it’s not for them – just like Tressa and Rachel do. And sex work is a thing that just about every single sex worker is shamed for – just like what we see happening to Tressa. Hot Girls Wanted could have spent some time trying to figure out why. Instead, it does the opposite. It highlights the apologetic, shame-filled women, while dumbing down and doubting those who currently enjoy their work. Only Jade is permitted to speak her mind – at times ambivalent and at other times totally contrary to the film’s overall mission – without being made to look a fool.

2. Looked at “Insta-fame”

Some iteration of “We’re gonna be famous!” is squealed multiple times near the beginning of the film. Hot Girls Wanted could’ve unpacked that, the idea of what fame means in 2015, and how it relates to being sexualized (dissertation topic idea, grad students!). Instead, it flashes up pictures of Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus, and 50 Shades of Grey. Instead, it’s going on a press tour.

3a. Looked at porn as an interactive and synergistic component of wider society

Hot Girls Wanted, like so many narratives before it and likely like gazillions to come, implies that porn is responsible for many wider social ills – from the commodified hyper-sexualization of young women to the “risky” and/or “degrading” sex behaviors plaguing humanity today. It’s porn’s fault. Porn did it!

Porn, like every other human-social entity, is both an artifact and a component of wider society. It’s a complex product of what we, as a collective group of humans, are. As such, what does the reflection of humanity we see in the cultural mirror of porn say about us? That query is generally too uncomfortable to engage, so instead we gobble up narratives like Hot Girls Wanted – ones that give porn all the power and paint us as passive victims.

3b. Compared porn to other industries

Hot Girls Wanted could’ve explored the similarities between porn and other industries – industries that rely on body work and every type of media. Industries that are very competitive, where few people “make it,” and stigmatized occupations, as well as jobs wherein the vast majority of workers have very short shelf lives, etc. But why would you watch a film about porn and construction workers, porn and professional fighters, porn and musicians, or porn and lawyers when you can gawk at *exploited teens* instead? This, incidentally, makes Hot Girls Wanted at least kinda guilty of precisely the thing it’s criticizing.

And there’s so much more…

Though not one single woman profiled in Hot Girls Wanted was “cornered” into porn because of financial dire straits, the filmmakers could’ve engaged issues related to economic opportunity and career building, as well as gender inequalities and privilege. They could’ve talked about how some young women’s wants and needs are still – now, today, in 20motherf*cking15! – shaped by the desires of others – their parents, their boyfriends, their boyfriends’ friends, even random photographers. And they could have talked about how they themselves infantilized every single adult-aged “girl” (which is also coincident with porn parlance, as is “boy”) in this film.

There’s so much to say about porn. It’s vast, diverse, and complex. It’s not for everyone, and that’s okay. And it’s far from perfect or pretty. But does that make it an anomaly in society or a microcosm?

As a product and as a component of wider society, porn needs an informed critical eye. Hot Girls Wanted is not it. I wish the film had moved us even a baby step closer to complicating the conversation, especially given its potential reach. But it didn’t. Instead, feel free to put it on the shelf next to Reefer Madness and Red Asphalt, right where it belongs – “Tell your children!”

Grad school is the equivalent of eating an entire pizza on your own. At the start, you think it’s a great idea and you wonder why all your friends told you not to do it. By the time it’s over, you’re laying on the floor, moaning in agony, and hating yourself.

DrC great article. I am fascinated by the role sex ed can play in shaping our experiences and information about sex and porn. How can we better prepare our young people with good, healthy and psychologically empowering education versus the super awkward stuff they are learning now.

Education is not the key! There already is too much being thrown at our kids. Sex is not something that should be brought up in school or at home. All kids need is Sunday School and bible study 2 or 3 nights a week.

Actually, one thing — and I think the reason that sex work is stigmatized even in sexually progressive times — is because sex work isn’t compatible with stable relationships. Putting sex more in the context of relationship and less in the context of something that is consumable would probably help most sex ed.

Why, though? I’d bet it’s because of the stigmatization of sex work. And sex only in the context of relationships is a bit…puritanical. For some people, it is. For others it isn’t. It can get a little hairy when those people have sex and have differing expectations, but I don’t think that means you place the blame on those who can/want to think about sex outside the context of relationships.

“sex work isn’t compatible with stable relationships.” That is absolutely not true.

My beloved husband of 16 years and I co-own a fetish porn production company, and we’ve both appeared in our, an other people’s, movies as well as producing, directing and editing.

Our guest director is a goldstar lesbian whose wife is her camera person. I know many porn performers who are either married, or in a long term stable relationship. If you look at top tier porn stars who have had lucrative, extensive careers, most of them are married to another porn star, director, web master, etc.

@Summers McKay thanks and yikes – that’s a HUGE question, one that (because of the vastness and diversity present in our culture) has no simple answer. I would say there are two things a person who’s of the mindset that the sex ed young people are receiving today is super awkward (or non-existent, and I’m right there with ya) can do. The first is to supplement whatever is being got – one resource made specifically for teens that is great is ScarlettTeen dot com. The second is to find a way to make the info valuable to young people. So say, for example, that a kid learns about the efficacy of condoms in preventing STIs. That’s one step, but I think we need to work it a step further – helping young people to internalize (eg value) that info. How that gets done for specific teens and in particular situations though then becomes the next challenge…

@sunny-dee I gotta second the comments made by others in response to you here. To say sex work isn’t compatible with stable relationships is a rather broad generalization and assumes a rather narrow definition of a “stable relationship.” Though sex work may cause some stable relationships to destabilize (??), that’s def not a uniform impact. What’s more, a possibly apparent cause-effect relationship between instability and sex work may actually be just a spurious artifact of other issues shaping a relationship. Best to consider the possibility of multiple possibilities here IMO.

@Brain Of J She does seem to be pretty “my way or the highway” about what forms of sexual expression are ok… Sadly, though this type of thinking is essentially the opposite of feminism, it gets conflated with it all too often – meh

@DrChauntelle Does this baloney documentary point out that these are literally the same tactics that mainstream Hollywood has quietly used for nearly a hundred years? That Hollywood’s entire billion dollar industry is supported by getting impressionable young people to do objectionable and even dangerous jobs for very little pay? That the entire Entertainment business supports itself by selling a dream of fame and riches and fulfillment that almost never materializes for the average below the line employee? And when confronted with the outrageous working conditions, rampant sexual harassment and discrimination, instances of fraud or corruption, and labor law violation that industry hand waves the accusations away with “you’re paying your dues.” I mean at least when Porn asks you to debase yourself, it pays upfront.

@DrChauntelle I’ve got a question that I’ve been pondering for some time. First off, let me state that I basically share Vince’s opinion on people who work in porn.

I’ve been struck over the years by how many porn stars have turned on the industry when they retired, often after spending years talking about how much they liked the work. Sasha Grey, Mya Nichole, etc. Even Belladonna talked in a Vice documentary about getting punched in the face during a shoot. So…I guess I have some nagging doubts about how this industry should be completely normalized, as if judgement shouldn’t somewhere enter into the conversation. Because I don’t think many people would want their children involved in it.

I certainly don’t condemn people for working in porn, far from it. But there are lingering rumors of major abuse, drugs, prostitution, etc. and it seems like every few months I come across a story of someone who got out of porn and told the other side of it. I just wonder if you have some thoughts on that.

@JTRO Honestly, I think this has everything to do with the narrative we as a cultural continue to be invested in re sex work and porn – a simplistic, horrified one (see for example, Hot Girls Wanted)

Porn is far (so so SO far) from perfect, but so is everything else. I’m getting to the point these days where I’m eye-rolling myself at that response, but it’s true. There is abuse and exploitation in every corner of humanity. Every corner.

We as a culture are willing to engage the nuance of just about every other subculture and community out there. We’re willing to at least try to be mindful of personal feelings in order to attempt to understand, work with, think about, and try to find ways to eradicate marginalization (an endless project in every industry and community), improve working conditions, and listen to what people are saying, good bad and indifferent, all while situating and contexualizing within a space we have taken time to understand. We as a culture are not willing, however, to do that with porn. At least not so far. So we fixate on the horror stories, we think about thing like drugs and prostitution without a critical eye trained to ask “Why? What are the larger issues at play? (and what are the wider issues that prevent us from asking the bigger questions?)” As such, stories like the ones you mentioned get held up as representative, while every other even remotely different narrative gets questioned or ignored. I guess, put simply, where is the documentary about the counter-narrative. No one seems to care about telling those stories…

@DrChauntelle Thanks very much for the reply. My issue is that I’ve come to believe it when people who work in porn say that they enjoy it and downplay the negatives. I also believe strongly that what they do doesn’t hurt anyone and they shouldn’t be stigmatized for their work.

But I’m starting to wonder how true that is after many former porn workers have eventually come out with stories of drug abuse, violence, prostitution, etc. In other words I have no way of comparing those who have had a genuinely positive career with those who have not. As you mentioned, the horror stories are held by some as representative of the realities of the industry. But I’m not predisposed to believe that. I have no religious or moral proclivities that would lead me in that direction. But I’m beginning to question it after some of what I’ve read.

@JTRO Well, all I can say to that is that you should question everything you read/see/etc… even this (Vince cut out a lot of my sarcasm!), everything. And re the gut feelings you seem to be developing, if you see a problem, take steps to fully identify and solve it. That could be supporting people who have had bad experiences, looking at porn itself more critically, and calling out things like piracy and sex worker discrimination (things that impact the state of the industry and make the workers above and below the line vulnerable), as well as sexism and gender inequality in general (it’s all interconnected).

Porn is not for everyone, and porn is def not perfect – the industry needs a serious critical evaluation in many respects, as do we as consumers who perpetuate the system (like buying Nikes, or whatever). If people take steps to make it so performers who’ve had negative experiences and/or decide porn simply isn’t for them can speak up and/or move on without fear of stigma or shame, then that makes life better for them, for everyone else in the business, and for the rest of us, as like, humanity. Get to work! :)

@Balls of Steel absolutely it does. I like the NFL less and less each year, mostly due to what I view as corruption on their part in a lot of areas. Last year was the least football I’ve watched in a decade

Dr. Chauntelle Tibbals is not a real name, and you should feel bad for using such obvious fakery.

The sex industry has a TON of problems, and it needs damaged young women to feed the beast. It’s as bad as network news, no one should defend it. Off to watch porn, I sure wish this world had equal opportunities.

I wonder if there’s any criticism of the pornography industry that you wouldn’t try to twist into “shaming sex workers”, no matter how tenuous. This documentary gives a voice to women who wouldn’t have had one otherwise. Someone who makes a living promoting the interests of the porn industry finds they have to say inconvenient? Tough shit.

The fashionable feminist myth of porn as female empowerment is absurd. I guess that’s why a huge percentile of women involved are hardcore drug addicts during and after their careers. It must be why the average life expectancy of “porn stars” is right around half that of an average person, due mostly to suicide and ODs. Because of all that healthy empowerment.

Listening to women that are nearly all white, educated and upper middle class or better talk about how empowering and liberating pornography is for women is like listening to frat dickheads from the suburbs watch The Wire and talk about how cool it must be to be a Baltimore crack dealer.

I don’t know where this camgirl “job” appeared. This is not a job people. If you spend time with guys on sites like Chaturbate or Fapshows.com it doesn’t mean that you are at work. We are creating a fake job description.

I’m a bit torn….in one sense, I do think there was corner of society here that deserved some light, but I don’t really appreciate a ton of editorial input in a documentary. Maybe I’m one of the few, but I believe a nuanced view of the facts that takes thoughtful care in establishing the counter points is the most compelling form of argument.

This was an excellent review. I’m a little bummed out that the documentary is so biased. I expected more from Rashida Jones.

One thing I think schools should be doing more of, is going further into depth about porn during sex ed. Accessing porn is easier to acquire more than ever and I think there’s a small population of kids out there that are probably getting warped ideas about sex based on what they see. We also need to change our culture in general (wishful thinking, I know) and how we perceive sex as well as people in this profession.

“They could’ve talked about how some young women’s wants and needs are still – now, today, in 20motherf*cking15! – shaped by the desires of others”

I’m not denying that things are worse for women, but whose desires aren’t shaped by other people? We want a good job because we’re told that having money and respect matters. We want a good relationship because we’re told it will make us happy. We want to live in a nice neighborhood because we’re told it will be safer.

Everything we want is shaped by the people and the culture around us. Even our desire to live and reproduce is just biology.

Free will be an axiomatic concept, but that doesn’t mean that we have completely free will. We have pre-set avenues in which we can express our will (i.e. we may choose what job makes us happy, but there’s still a list of acceptable, happy making jobs out there).

I haven’t seen this documentary and I understand your point about how the filmmakers are engaging in the same bad behavior the ‘villainous’ porn producers are engaging in (telling the female talent what they should want and what they should do) but we all do that. All of us through one way or another support the existence of the established order. Either we actively support by railing against those that fall outside of it, we passively support it by not actively thinking about it, or we oppose it, which validates it by turning it into the dominant social force.

Power makes victims and victimizers of us all. You’re doing the same thing as the filmmakers when you cast them as the exploiters and the girls and the audience as those exploited.

Well I thought it was really good. It was more like a PSA about these teen girls who have no idea what they’re getting into. We know they don’t… what they were all saying in the beginning about wanting to be rich and successful… it doesn’t happen for nearly any of them. And they’re too young and naive to know that.

And don’t forget the rape! The poor little girl, that one 18 year old girl goes onto set hired to perform one sex act, and then 15 minutes into it they pressure her into performing other sex acts she didn’t want to, and her exact words were “I was scared. I was very scared. I didn’t think I could say “no” and I didn’t think I could just walk off set.” So basically she was raped while filming porn. Do these young teen girls know they’re getting into that when they see the Craigslist ad offering a free flight to Miami for posing naked in a cam chat?

You are wrong. The film did look at sex worker shaming. Provided, of course, that that’s how you would define a man with a camera shoving his dick so far down a woman’s throat that she vomits, and then forcing her to eat her own vomit off the floor. It’s absurd to claim that the people who most hate sex workers are feminists (some of them former sex workers themselves). Men who produce and consume porn hate these women more than anti-porn feminists ever could.

@Drchauntell I hope you check back on this thread. I really enjoyed complicating my view with your perspective and listened to your interview on Woodrocket podcast too.

But I have to agree with @Dixie Pomeroy. While I think you’re right that the industry needs to be reformed and looked at critically, without shaming users or workers, I wonder if you won’t admit to at least SOME of the positive of what this film accomplished. Whether or not the stats in HGW were legit, obviously pro-am porn from the male perspective is extremely popular. So is porn that objectifies women even more aggressively like Dixie mentioned. To me this doc was the answer to that strain of porn. It humanized these girls.

We see that they don’t all come from “broken homes,” a popular myth. We see a girl being accepted and forgiven by her family and boyfriend for betraying their trust. Or maybe from your POV we see them shaming her choice. Though it doesn’t seem like a very informed choice does it?

And instead of the virulent sexism of @Corky McCorkle’s comment above, the doc made me see these teenagers – who I previously had viewed as mere objects who did or didn’t satisfy my browsing needs – as human beings. I understood it emotionally, not just intellectually, and I understood their decision. The appeal to 18 year old adolescents is relatable in the film- freedom, money, and adventure. Exciting stuff for a teenager.

Part of the process of humanizing sex work is to tell stories about women who have had positive or neutral experiences. You seem to argue that those stories would make up an equal number if not more, than the negative ones. Personally, I doubt that.

Is it too far outside your purview to call any kind of porn exploitative? Do you really think the hordes of 12 year old boys discovering this kind of stuff won’t have their view of sex and women influenced by this male-dominated porn that commonly throws around words like slut and whore to promote their vids?

On the Woodrocket podcast you exlaimed that after all, these girls responded to the ad “of their own free will!!” Do you really think the teens in the pro-am biz have agency?

I understand that this film does NOT come close to explaining the entire experience of women in porn. Or even of young women in pro-am… but I hope that men will watch this doc (perhaps drawn in by the sexy cover) and reflect critically on what they choose to support in their porn viewing habits. Something it sounds like @JTRO is maybe grappling with…